Balancing graduate school and family

Month: December 2014

Yesterday was a very unproductive day (morning and all afternoon), I looked over at this huge pile of exams, sitting nicely on my desk, and I thought ‘there is NO WAY, I’m going to work on this on Monday and get the final grades in by Tuesday.’ Therefore, I stayed up until 3AM and got about 50 exams out of the way. I even alphabetized them as well because I had to see whether I had any missing exams.

Today was a better day, I went to mass in the morning (around 10AM) with my roommate and then just blazed through the remaining exams and finish at 4PM. I had breaks in between. It’s now 6:15PM and I’m going to start working on my dissertation work at 6:30PM. I work better when I have set blocks. For example, I kept pushing myself to start and finish at a specific time and I would reward myself by giving myself ‘breaks.’ I had a total of 3 breaks in between grading and working on my dissertation. For example, I used my first break to have lunch, my second break-I went outside for a walk, and my third is now (ends at 6:30PM) which writing this blog and listening to music (LOVE Pandora!). If you’re a procrastinator like me and you want to start getting work done, try this method! Hope it works for you too! Remember, reward yourselves with breaks and keep checking the time.

I’m headed back home at the end of this week and I do not know how to feel because of all the BS going on (ie. my dad’s previous boss). I think we may take them to court and that in itself is a whole ordeal and just time consuming. They have this week to settle this outside of court, but we will see how it goes (I will update you on this). But I think it will be a good thing to spend time with my family, we are not as stressed out or distraught like the previous weeks.

Also, it’s not vacation mode yet, because once I get home I have to work on this online course I will run in January. Guess what? My online course is already filled up, I currently have 30 students!!! So, I have to set up the lectures and assignments and have it ready Mid-January. I will start working on this on Saturday, because Thursday I will be headed back home and I will probably be tired from my trip and then Friday I have to go sign the paperwork for this job I will start in February!!!! I will be a research associate at a research center!! can you believe?! I still can’t believe this!!! I guess this PhD did really paid off and the best thing is that my job is in the same state where I live, so I can commute (1hr) from home to work. Anyways, I will go into detail about this another time.

Anyways, hopefully you had a productive weekend!!! better yet, a relaxed weekend!! I will start having those in February : )

It’s 10:08AM and I just woke up. Today’s agenda is to have a draft ready and hand it in on Monday. All I have left to do, is to polish Chapters 1-4; complete chapter 5 (data analysis/findings); and have an outline for chapter 6 (conclusions). If I see that I can’t get work done at home, I will have to immediately go to campus.

The past weeks, I was horrible because I was procrastinating too much!!! It also had to do having no energy, because my sleeping habit was very bad. For example, there will be nights where I’d still be up until 4 or 5 AM watching TV shows on netflix. Netflix is my biggest enemy, STAY AWAY!!!!!!!!

My students took their final this past week (I have 100 students); and I have to grade the exams. So, if I do not get to that this weekend I will have to grade them ALL DAY on Monday. I did that several times where I literally sat down and graded all 100 exams.

Today’s Agenda:

1. Polish Chapters 1-4

2. Start Chapter 5 (data analysis/findings)

3. If have time, grade at least 50 exams

4. Gym at night

I will try to post a blog tonight, to let you know the status of my work. Hope your have a great Saturday!!!

**UPDATE #1***

It’s 3:39PM and I didn’t get anywhere with my ‘to do list.’ Today is a perfect example of being the biggest procrastinator in the world. I’m watching ‘Mob Wives’ on amazon prime and I can’t stop watching. This is really bad. Ok I will try to start working at 4PM…lol.

**UPDATE #2**

It’s 6:22 PM and I’m doing pretty well, it’s always hard to get started with work but once your in ‘work mode’ it feels great, the tick is keep going!!!! Anyways, I am nowhere close to finishing- but at least I’m doing work.

**UPDATE #3***

It’s 12:40AM and I did pretty OK. I’m going to bed now…and hopefully tomorrow will be a better work day for me. Plus, I’m going to mass in the afternoon, hopefully prayers will keep me going!!!!!

Sorry for MAJOR DELAY! I think my last blog was in October! whoops! Let me catch you up, the reason I am doing this is because I cannot sleep. All I keep doing is thinking ALOT!!!

So, I think in my last blog- I was doing doing a daily routine which included: waking up early, go to the gym, then do work, go home, do some more work (because you know YOU ALWAYS TAKE WORK HOME WITH YOU AS A GRADUATE STUDENT…AND IF YOU DON’T CONSIDER YOURSELF AWESOME!), then have dinner, watch tv, and pass out!

Well, the routine worked for a while, when a curveball came my way. I mentioned this in my first blog, about my family problems. Well, it only intensified and got worse since I last brought it up. Long story short, my dad was about to be unemployed, he is a superintendent (basically cleaning and managing a building), and just Yesterday, the building was officially sold by another company. Good news is, that my dad is working for that company now. However, the weeks leading up to yesterday, were the worse days, not only for me, but for my parents and brother as well. Why? well, because if my dad did not work then we’d have to find a place to live and to be honest, we do not have the ability to purchase a home or even cover 3 months worth of rent (security deposit, real estate agent fees, and 1st months rent). The whole ordeal was STRESSFUL and it really screwed up things, because my mom was depressed, my dad tried to be positive and telling us that ‘everything will be OK’, my brother was trying really hard to straighten things out with my dad previous employers (basically they are trying to screw my dad over). I dreaded calling my parents (I call them everyday and at least 2x’s a day) because of the problems and issues going on at home. Nothing was the same anymore because we were all so overwhelm. I did not want to deal with it because I have to finish my dissertation. All I kept thinking about was my family and it is really difficult to separate family and work, well for me at least.

However, since my dad is now working for these new company, we are able to stay in the same building and he will now have benefits, over-time pay, rent free apartment, and lastly he will only work certain hours of the day (this is totally the opposite from his previous employers). My mom is going to work today, which she is super happy about. So, in a way I am happy and relieved because this whole situation had a negative effect on me, emotionally, mentally, and physically.

Some updates with my dissertation, well I am almost there! I just have the analysis/findings and conclusion chapter to work on and that is it. I was planning on graduating this semester BUT I do not think it is possible. Also, I thought that if I graduate in the spring of 2015, I can use my grace-period (6 months) to pay back my loans. So, if I graduate in December then I would have to start paying back my loans in May; however, if I graduate in May I will pay them back in November. Also, good news! I have a full-time job waiting for me in February!! can you believe??! I super happy and relieved!

Anyways, I’m starting to feel sleepy (it’s like 12:50 AM)- I will try to go the gym today and start my routine!